Rural tourism in İtaly: The case of Toskana

Tourism, which has many different purposes such as resting, traveling, and can be defined as temporary departure from home, is also an economic and cultural phenomenon. Rural tourism, on the other hand, can be differentiated from other types of tourism in terms of the location of tourism activities away from the city and the activities carried out. In this study, rural tourism was handled as a whole and defined from different angles, the activities it included were mentioned, the problems experienced and development processes were discussed. With these definitions, examples from the Tuscany Region of Italy are given, the subject is detailed and evaluated with statistical data by considering its differences with other types of tourism, advantages and disadvantages. While the research includes a lot of data from the Tuscany Region of Italy, the importance of rural tourism in Italy and its increasing popularity are supported by numbers by including the general tourism data of Italy. The details of various tourism policies implemented in the country are mentioned and their effects are shown. In addition, the demographic structure, culinary characteristics and economic values of the Tuscany Region were also shared. Keywords: Italy, Rural Tourism, Tuscany.